For this week’s blog post I wanted to make an honest confession: I am so glad that for the FIRST TIME in my weekly writing, I did not have a story planted in my brain, ready to roll… I’m completely abandoned all Type A inclinations!

Instead of sitting down at my laptop to write my weekly blog post with story notes, thoughts and musings neatly outlined I struggled with a bit of writer’s block after surviving what I loving call on Twitter #thegreatbigmoveof2010 – My Brain was trying to say it needed a spa weekend.

So imagine my surprise when I ran across an article featured in North Texas Kids monthly magazine (I swear I was searching for business leads, not filling in the crossword puzzle…) and when turning the page an article headline and the answer to my writer’s block slapped me square in the face: ‘New iPhone App Inspires Tween Girls to be Positive!’ – Hallelujah!

Although the interview article was on the shorter/plainer side (maybe 300 words, and that’s a high ball guess), I was inspired to feature a story on the iPhone App Beautiful Mirror because I believe its implications carry far beyond the borders of newsprint in the October issue of North Texas Kids Monthly…

The Concept: Beauty Mirror is an application available on the iPhone/iDevice which essentially serves as a ‘Magic Mirror’ reminder about how awesome you (a woman) are and encourages ladies of all ages to disregard those negative nagging thoughts and replace them with positive, proactive perspective. In short, think of it as a portable Magic Mirror like in Shrek or Snow White crossed with Richard Simmons—

The Creators: What do you get when you add technology smarts, outgoing personalities, and roots based in California and Toronto? Isabel Rasmussen and Lauren Wood, the 2 super cool, super incredible creators of the Beauty Mirror application who want to positively shape the way tween and teenage girls look at themselves, that’s who.

Applying it to #EMAC6300… While I do not own an iPhone/iDevice I see this emerging technology as one of the most impressive ways app/computer programmers are leveraging their ability to manipulate technology for good instead of not so good.

Remember when we talked about the screen society in class the other week? We circled around what we were doing in a world of screens of all shapes and sizes including TVs, Desktops, iPads, Cell Phones, iPhones, iPods, etc. In it’s own way I think a mirror is a sort of ‘screen’. An interesting question came up about how society as opposed to removing screens instead was figuring out ways to adapt and incorporate them more into daily life. I have to admit that I wouldn’t be terribly annoyed if I had a screen in my life which reminded me on a daily basis that Beauty first begins on the Inside. Now that’s the power of emerging media.

Amanda, Thank You! You are Beautiful!! What you wrote is exactly why we made this application, we wanted to use the benefits of technology – the power of apps to empower others. For those without an iPhone we also have our Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/beautymirrorapp
On the page we share our blog, You Tube videos (we do a talk show for tween girls), and send daily messages that remind you of your beauty. Please connect with us and tell the beautiful women in your life about our app!

This is really refreshing to read. I’m always saying how I wish I could host a class for younger generation females just so they can start life with a great foundation of high self-esteem and confidence. But just to play devils advocate a little bit, how big of a difference will this app make for females with an iPhone? And not every female is able to access this app.

I couldn’t help but comment. I don’t think that I really have a valuable opinion to the issue because I would not ditch a “make-up mirror” for an app. However, I like you applied the concept to #EMAC6300. There are a lot of apps like this and I don’t always see the point. If you are always on your phone, in my opinion, people might feel like you are being disrespectful and not understand what you are doing, where as with a mirror, everyone knows!

Interesting topic, Amanda. It’s further contextualized by the comments of one of the creators above (congrats on the attention to your blog!). Of course there are complications to the topic (why not give away the app? Why develop it for such a specialized audience? What do you do for the girl who doesn’t have enough self-esteem to write one of those self-affirmations? etc) Despite my skepticism, I find the facebook page somewhat endearing. And I like the way you’ve applied it to the class.

Now, can you push the analysis a bit further? So this is one interesting app. So what? Do we read this as a trend? As an exploit to the system? If so, which systems? etc.